The present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Korean Application No. 2002-0055791, filed on Sep. 13, 2002, which is herein expressly incorporated by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Internet refrigerator, and more particularly to an Internet refrigerator serving as a home networking server and a multimedia server which has a hardware platform including a high performance central processing unit (CPU) generating a large amount of heat, wherein the Internet refrigerator has a heat sink that utilizes cold air from the refrigerator itself.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the recent increase in Internet use, the use of home appliances for accessing the Internet has also greatly increased. Further, as the Internet can be accessed through the use of a mobile handset such as a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA) without using a computer, the number of users of the Internet greatly have increased. Furthermore, home appliances which additionally have a network connection function, enabling housekeepers to access the Internet through the use thereof, are becoming more wide spread.
To expedite such a trend, not only a network for home networking systems should be established but also home networking servers which manage and control a plurality of home appliances either in a home or at remote sites via the Internet should be connected to the Internet. In the present application, the conventional art and the present invention will be described assuming that the home networking server is an Internet refrigerator.
To enable the Internet refrigerator 1 to act as a home networking server, the Internet refrigerator 1 is provided with a display unit at an external surface thereof so that web pages or the operational state of the refrigerator may be displayed thereon, and with an input unit so as to input commands therethrough. The display unit 2 and the input unit are preferably a touch pad simultaneously acting as an input device and a display device for efficient arrangement of the components thereof.
Referring to FIG. 1, the Internet refrigerator comprises a refrigerator 1, a display unit 2 arranged at an external surface of the refrigerator 1, and a main board 3 with a chip set including a high performance CPU arranged at an upper portion thereof. The data processing result of the chip set is displayed on the display unit 2. Since the chip set processes signals to control a plurality of home appliances connected to a home networking system and processes software modules to display Internet web pages on the display unit 2, the chip set must have a capacity large enough to process a large amount of data.
FIG. 2 is an exploded, perspective view of an Internet refrigerator in accordance with the conventional art. Referring to FIG. 2, an Internet refrigerator comprises a refrigerator 1, a main board 3 arranged at an upper portion thereof for processing control signals and data, and a display unit 2 for displaying the data and signal processing results of the main board 3.
Since a cooling fan is attached to the main board 3, the total thickness of the main board 3 inevitably becomes thicker than the thickness of the main board 3 alone. As the performance or operational load of the main board 3 increases, a chip set mounted on the main board generates a larger amount of heat, so that the temperature of the main board 3 increases. In some cases, the temperature increase may cause the chip set to malfunction. Particularly, a CPU mounted on a left side of the main board 3 is the greatest heat generator, so that the CPU necessarily requires a cooling fan. There are various types of cooling arrangements. For example, there is a cooling fan arrangement including a plurality of small cooling fans, a cooling fan having a larger fan than a normal-size fan, and/or a cooling fan having a rapid rotation speed. Those cooling fan arrangements described above are disadvantageous in that they increase the total thickness of the main board.
In typical Internet refrigerators, with reference to FIG. 1, the main board 3 is arranged on the top of the refrigerator 1. Accordingly, as the total thickness of the main board 3 increases, the total height of the Internet refrigerator also increases. As a result, the installation location of the Internet refrigerator is limited by the increased height of the Internet refrigerator. Further, since a heat sinking (i.e. dissipating) capacity of a cooling fan is insufficient with respect to the large amount of heat generated by the chip set on the main board, the life span of the chip set is shortened and control errors in the Internet refrigerator are more likely to occur.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problem. It is an object of the present invention to provide an Internet refrigerator serving as a home networking server and a multimedia server, and capable of using an Internet. The Internet refrigerator has a heat sink plate facing a surface of a main board for dispersing heat generated by a chip set mounted on the main board, and has a pipeline contacting a surface of the heat sink plate through which cold air in the Internet refrigerator passes to cool the heat sink plate, so that overheating of the chip set is prevented and the total height of the refrigerator is reduced by eliminating a cooling fan on the main board.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the Internet refrigerator which comprises a main board on which a chip set is arranged, a heat sink plate facing a surface of the main board and absorbing heat generated from the chip set, and a pipeline having both ends connected to an interior of a freezer compartment of the refrigerator and arranged to contact a lower surface of the heat sink plate at a portion thereof so as to provide heat exchange between the freezer compartment of the refrigerator and the heat sink plate.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an Internet refrigerator, comprising a main board with a chip set thereon, a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of the main board, a heat sink plate facing a surface of the main board and absorbing heat generated by the chip set, a pipeline having both ends connected to an interior of a cooled compartment of the refrigerator and arranged to contact a lower surface of the main board at a portion thereof so as to transfer cold air from the cooled compartment of the refrigerator to the heat sink plate, and a cooling fan arranged in the cooled compartment of the refrigerator that introduces the cold air generated in the cooled compartment of the refrigerator, into the aforementioned pipeline.